Sunday, 26 April 2009

Austrian coffee cake with coffee buttercream

It’s the CCD’s (Caked Crusader’s Da) birthday on the 28th April. It’s also my uncle’s birthday which isn’t all that surprising seeing as they’re twins!

OK, so I can't explain what happened on the "T" in birthday; it took on a life of its own!

The CCD is rather partial to coffee cake and swiss meringue buttercream so I took a recipe for Austrian coffee cake and teamed it up with my trusted recipe for swiss meringue buttercream. The cake was particularly interesting to me as it used a technique that I’ve only previously seen with lemon cake, that of making a syrup to drizzle over and be absorbed by the fresh-from-the-oven cake to guarantee maximum flavour and moistness. I suppose it isn’t dissimilar to the technique used for making tiramisu. Here’s the sponge after the syrup was brushed over:

The original quantities for the sponge layers looked a bit mean to me so I scaled the recipe up, hence the oddly exact looking volumes. I find that all sponges are scalable and you shouldn’t ever fear doing this. My quantities are 150% of the original (except for the eggs, where I scaled three up to five) and gave a lovely tall sponge.

Candles can be used to express that special heartfelt message (this is probably an appropriate place to explain that my family are all blessed with the same "unusual" sense of humour - I think the candles were the CCD's favourite part of the cake!):

It’s a tricky cake to cut and get crisp, neat slices but no one seemed to mind!

These photos show how the sponge absorbs pockets of coffee syrup and stays extremely moist:

How to make:- Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan oven 150°C/325°F/Gas mark 3.- Line two 20cm round sandwich tins with baking paper.- Beat together all of the ingredients except for the coffee and walnuts. Ensuring that your butter is soft will make this task easier.- Add the coffee and walnuts and beat further until the mixture is well combined.- The mixture should drop from the spoon when tapped on the bowl. If it doesn’t add a little more hot water.- Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared tins and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Mine took 40 minutes.- While the cakes are cooking, make the syrup: place the coffee and sugar in a heatproof bowl and then add the boiling water.- Stir until both the coffee and sugar have dissolved. You will need to stir briskly to ensure this.- When the cakes are cooked, leave in the tins, on a wire rack.- Prick them all over – while they are still hot – and spoon the syrup over both sponges, trying to distribute it as evenly as possible. I found this a lot easier to achieve using a silicon pastry brush and gently brushing the syrup over the sponges.- Leave the cakes in the tin to absorb the syrup and only remove when completely cool. Take care as a moist cake is a fragile cake.- Now make the swiss meringue buttercream. Place the egg whites and sugar in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir pretty much constantly to prevent the egg from cooking.- After 5-10 minutes, when the sugar has dissolved (when you cannot see any crystals on the back of the spoon), remove the bowl from the pan of simmering water and whisk until the meringue has puffed up and the mix is cool.- Add the butter and coffee to the meringue and whisk until the butter has been completely incorporated into the meringue. At first it will look a disaster – it will collapse and look curdled but don’t worry! Stop when the mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.- Spread approximately a third of the buttercream on top of one of the sponges and then put the other sponge on top.- Use the remaining buttercream to cover the top and sides as desired.- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.- Eat.

I was just thinking this afternoon, I wonder if she's done a cake with coffee before, and was planning on checking your archives! This looks yummy. Happy birthday to your dad.I made your cherry and hazelnut cake this weekend, which has been declared a big hit. I had to laugh when I spotted my partner mopping up crumbs with the cream just as in your post.

have a question- for the syrup you have 1 1/2 tablespoons, then demerera sugar, and then boiling water. what is the ingredient necessary for the tablespoons? and could it possibly be espresso or coffee powder?? i ask, as you reference a coffee syrup. but your recipe shows no coffee in the syrup. you can e-mail me at bge@infionline.net

Read this great novel!

Look at this great website

Follow my ambitious attempt to find a recipe for a cake, biscuit, pie or tart for every single one of the 39 traditional English counties!

The Caked Crusader and Boy Wonder

Cartoon by Cakeyboi

About Me

So, the answer to the question you’re all asking: who am I? Well, a superhero never reveals their identity. I think it’s stated somewhere in the contract when you sign up for superhero-dom. Let’s just call me THE CAKED CRUSADER. By day (and night if I’m being honest) a mild-mannered City professional, but at weekends I become THE CAKED CRUSADER. Tirelessly fighting anti-cake propaganda and cake-related injustices – for SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, ALWAYS NEEDS CAKE (we’ll just skip over the fact that it’s usually me).

Batman’s got the batmobile, batcave etc. Superman does just great what with being able to fly and being really strong. Spiderman’s got that web thing going on. But I have better than them. For I have a credit card and could get one of these:

The purpose of my blog is simple – to spread the word that CAKE IS GOOD.Yes, it is calorific; that is why it tastes so nice.Yes, too much of it is bad for you; that’s what ‘too much’ means.Yes, we’re all told to eat healthily and we know that we should. But ask yourself this – and look very deeply into your soul before answering – when has a cup of tea and a carrot ever cheered you up? However, put that carrot into a cake and happiness will ensue. Quod erat demonstrandum – CAKE IS GOOD.

This site will catalogue cakes I have unleashed unto the world and my thoughts thereon.

By the way, I will never recommend how many portions you should get out of a cake because we’re all different. Plus, it will be very embarrassing when I say it serves 4 and you get 20 portions out of it.

WARNING: Too much time spent on this blog may cause hunger.

Privacy notice

The Caked Crusader blog does not share personal information with third-parties, nor does it store or use information collected about your visit to the site other than to analyse content performance. I am not responsible for the republishing of the blog’s content on other websites or media without my permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice.

Cake Achievement in Film and Television Arts (CAFTA)

Have you seen a cake in a film or tv show that deserves recognition? Has a cupcake upstaged a beefcake?

If so, please let me know and that cake could win a coveted CAFTA award. Email me your suggestions, with a photo of the cake if possible.

About Me

I am a 40-something Chartered Accountant working in the square mile.
My main hobbies at the moment are baking, and setting the world record for the number of cake tins owned by one person.
I spend far too much time watching Spongebob Squarepants and would love to try a Krabby Patty...I know, I know - it's not real.